


Something on the face

by Rain_GellerBing



Series: Stuff that happens when you let your music shuffle prompt you [2]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Hartley is a bit ooc, I think it's the first, I'm not sure it is, Inspired by Music, M/M, Tell me if I forgot anything, That boy should stop screwing up time, blame it on the timeline, it's probably not, set in the first timeline Barry changed, this was supposed to be cute
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-04
Updated: 2017-11-04
Packaged: 2019-01-29 13:13:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,248
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12631758
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rain_GellerBing/pseuds/Rain_GellerBing
Summary: C'è un tempo per qualcosa sul viso, come un sorrisoChe non c'era ieri e oggi c'èSembrava ormai lontano e distante, perso per sempreInvece è ritornato con teThere is time for something on the face, like a smileThat yesterday wasn't there, but today it's hereBy now it looked far away, lost forever,but it came back with you, instead





	Something on the face

**Author's Note:**

> Hi everyone!
> 
> This series was born on a day I had too much time for myself and ended up getting inspired by my music shuffle. I'm sorry I listen to weird music.
> 
> I hope you enjoy this!
> 
> If you are wondering, the song is Lo strano percorso (The odd path) by Max Pezzali/883 [I tried to translate it, I hope it makes sense]

Cisco realized it on a normal day, a day just like any other.: Hartley Rathaway knew how to smile.

 

Nothing wrong with it, nothing uncommon, weird, unexpected. But it was something Cisco never realized till that day.

 

It had been a fairly uneventful day. Cisco had tinkered with his new invention, Caitlin had run some tests on herself and Hartley, Barry had prevented a robbery and Hartley had behaved like a good Guinea Pig, instead of his usual, dick-y self.

 

It was rather late. Cait had gone home, her mother would have arrived in town the next day and everything needed to be perfect. When she was heading out, Cisco had made the mental note to call her later, just to make sure she wasn't freaking out. He would probably end up going to her place to help her, with Thai takeaway and patience.

 

While Cisco was improving his next creation, a gas who should be able to minimize Mardon's powers, Hartley was keeping an eye on the monitors. Everything was calm, for once. No meta-human activity, no alarms going off... it was all too good to be true.

 

That's probably why Cisco got distracted by Hartley. Because it had been an uncharacteristically calm day, and his mind went to how things changed after the Time Wraith had attacked them.

To be honest, Hartley was still a pain in the ass, but many things had changed from how they were before the Particle Accelerator exploded.

 

Hartley was always the same, a snob and smart prince, but now, without a Harrison Wells to please, now that he didn't see Cisco and Caitlin as rivals but as coworkers, he was bearable. Even more than that: he was almost friendly.

 

Cisco wouldn't go as far as to call him friendly just because he always treated him like scum, but with Barry he was more than civil, and with Caitlin... let's just say that if Cisco didn't know he was gay, he would be sure Hartley had fallen for the icy doctor.

 

As we said, Cisco was spacing out, thinking about Hartley. That's why he got something wrong, and a cloud of white gas sprayed out of his new creation, and suddenly all he could see was the gas.

 

Cisco started coughing, eyes watering. He moved quickly from his worktable, heading to some place where he could breath something that wasn't that gas. It shouldn't have been toxic, but still... never trust weird gasses.

 

That's when he bumped into Hartley, who, for the split of a second, looked scared. And then he started to laugh.

 

It wasn't Hartley's usual laugh. He wasn't laughing because someone had screwed up, or because he had made a remarkably snark comment. He was laughing because something was funny. And Cisco suspected that the funny thing happening was him. Cisco felt his cheeks redden. As it turned out, even if Cisco was blushing no one noticed.

 

“You... You are _ridiculous_ , Cisco.” said Hartley, and then he smiled.

 

And that's when Cisco realized he had never seen Hartley smile. He would remember that smile because it was the cutest thing ever.

 

Okay maybe puppies and kitties and otters were better, but for human standards Hartley's smile was too cute. He even had dimples.

 

Add that to bright eyes and white teeth and maybe you will realize why Cisco was completely unaffected by being called 'ridiculous', neither feeling angry nor wondering why the heck he was ridiculous. He was just a little astonished by a dude's smile, and he was utterly astonished by the fact that he was astonished by _Hartley_ 's smile.

 

“What... who... Wha...” he articulated, but nothing of sense came out of his mouth. Hartley giggled again.

 

“You are covered in... white stuff. Ashes, I'd say. What on Earth is this, anyway?” Hartley asked, still smiling, and touching Cisco's hair, now white.

 

Cisco knew it would be better to say something quickly, it would be weird to stay in trance like this, come on big guy, focus.

 

“Yeah, kind of, I used some chlorine and...” And Cisco had lost himself in explaining how his new invention worked – should have worked – while Hartley handed him a spare cloth to clean himself.

 

“What a pity that your Keep Calm Han Solo shot first t-shirt is now ruined.” said Hartley with all the sarcasm in the world, when Cisco was almost done cleaning up.

 

Cisco scoffed. “I think I'll be able to clean it...” He sighed, dramatically. “At least I hope.”

 

And that's when he realized Hartley was still smiling. With dimples and everything. One thing was smiling, another was smiling for so long. How did the smile stay perfect? Wasn't Hartley tired? He wasn't used to smile that much, so he probably was in pain. Then why did his smile still look so cute?

 

“Is there something wrong?” Hartley asked, mildly concerned, since Cisco was staring at him.

 

“No, nothing, just that...”

 

Would it be rude to say it? Weird? Oh, well.

 

“You never smiled at STAR Labs, before. Meaning when Eobard/Wells was here. I just... never saw you smiling? It's nice.” Cisco added the last part rapidly, because Hartley's face had crumbled, somewhat offended. _Good job, Cisco, you managed to insult him now that he was being friendly with you,_ he thought.

 

Surprisingly, Hartley wasn't angry at him. “I... I never noticed.” he muttered, his head tilted, as if he was trying to remember when was the last time he had smiled at Cisco.

 

“I didn't want to insult you, or to upset you...” Cisco started, but Hartley interrupted. “You're probably right. I'm an asshole half of the time, so it's probably true, that I never smile to you, I mean.” and again, Hartley smiled. But now Cisco's brain was prepared, and it didn't break down like before.

 

“Half of the time? Someone's being generous with himself.” he laughed, and Hartley kept his smile on.

 

Oh, those dimples... Cisco could get used to it. To Hartley smiling.

 

“I'm sorry my smile freaks you out.” Hartley joked. The silence that followed this was weird. Both men were thinking too much into what happened, probably. The first one to break the silence was Cisco.

 

“You've changed a lot. If last year someone had told me I would be laughing in the lab with Hartley Rathaway... I wouldn't have believed it. I'm not even sure I believe it now, to be honest.”

 

Hartley snorted, but didn't reply anything sarcastic. He returned to the monitors. Still no meta-human gone rogue, still no Rogue gone crazy.

 

“It... was you guys. One hundred percent. I wouldn't have been able to do... this, without you.” Hartley confessed after a while.

 

“Yeah, I kind of remember what you did when you were without us.” Cisco joked.

 

He remembered the past time-line, remembered Hartley trying to kill him and Barry. It all looked like a dream, no, it was fuzzier, like a story someone told him a long time ago and that he somehow still remembered.

 

“I'm sorry about that.” Hartley apologized, cheeks kind of red.

 

“Oh, that wasn't you. The current you, I mean. I told you, you've changed a great deal and... I'm happy for you.”

 

“I'm happy too.” Hartley whispered, and then they returned to their work, in silence.

 

That night, Cisco still remembered how cute Hartley's dimples looked, and he decided that he needed to make the guy laugh more. He realized he wanted to be the reason behind that smile.

 

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you liked this!
> 
> If you want, come and say hi!
> 
> https://www.tumblr.com/blog/writerrain


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